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Hervé Le Quilliec
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| Born on 02/09/1963 |
 What do the logistics entail in a Volvo Ocean Race?
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The majority of people who are discovering or already familiar with the course and what's involved for a project in
the Volvo Ocean Race, soon realise that the logistics aspect represents an important component in this exercise, as much for
the organiser as for the participants.
The term logistics groups together the organisation, the operations and all the
terrestrial components of a project, except for the technical preparation of the boat, the regulatory aspect, the public relations
and the marketing, which are nevertheless sectors and departments that we work closely with.
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The logistics domain encompasses:
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• The shore team (20 to 30 people),
• Organisation and life during stopovers,
• Relationships with the organisers
(Volvo and the local organisers),
• Coordination of events with the project's communication and public relations services,
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Management of the Groupama Team as soon as it's away from its base in Lorient,
• Freight (maritime and aerial)
• Transfers,
supplies
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What are the qualities necessary for this job?
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• Unquestionably experience helps, and also the network of contacts that you've been able to build up over the years.
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The fact you've sailed for a long time helps you really understand and appreciate the needs and mentalities of the sailors
and technicians.
• The ability to anticipate, organise and plan.
• To be ready for anything, especially at inopportune
moments (you know that, whatever happens, you'll have to deal with crisis situations...), to have the capacity to adapt to
the different situations and populations.
• To be capable of being convincing and justifying your choices.
• To know
how to work as a team and develop your ability to communicate and relate with people.
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How do the logistics contribute to the Team's results?
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Preparation is the key element in the Volvo Ocean Race.
To be ready in technical and sports terms, as well as being
ready to respond and adapt to circumstances. Good planning and good organisation enable plans to go smoothly. Meticulous preparation
also enables you to respond to unplanned or late requests.
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This will be your fourth Volvo Ocean Race. What do you like about this race?
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Each project and each edition is different. The role evolves from one team to another, because no one structure is identical,
each project has its own organisation and culture.
It doesn't necessarily involve calling things into question each time,
but it's always a fresh start for new adventures. It's thrilling!
Experience counts for a lot of course, but the fact
of being confronted with different people and destinations requires a renewal of your work.
The setting up, discovery
and building in strength phase is at least as interesting as the race itself.
The race is like handing in your report.
The result tells us if we worked well beforehand.
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What are the special characteristics of the stopovers in the next edition?
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There's a good mix between the familiar stopovers (Cape Town, Auckland, Miami) and the new destinations (Abu Dhabi,
Sanya, Itajai and, to a lesser degree, Lisbon).
There is also a new, shorter, stopover format, which will require a bit
of effort to adapt to.
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Given your experience, what would you say are Groupama Team's qualities?
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• Groupama's strong commitment, dating back to 2009 and for the long term, for two editions. That gives us the time
and all the necessary means to put together the team and carry the project through.
• The experiences of the Team in the
Jules Verne Trophy and the crewed races, the management of the project and the construction of the Groupama trimarans, the
collaboration in the America's Cup 2010.
As such there is already a very solid structure in existence.
• The open
mindedness involved in hunting down the skills, very early on, from the outside, which were deemed to be lacking in the existing
team.
•A certain degree of freshness and curiosity.
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